MARK WILLIAMS was left questioning his future in the sport after he crashed out in the first-round of the UK Championships to qualifier Mark King.

MARK WILLIAMS was left questioning his future in the sport after he crashed out in the first-round of the UK Championships to qualifier Mark King.

Williams, a former two-time UK champion, went down 6-3 to the world no.32, staging a mini-fight back when 5-1 down but leaving himself too much to do in the end at the Barbican in York.

It has been a decade since the 37-year-old - who fell out of the top 32 four years ago - last won the UK crown but Williams staged a remarkable turnaround to climb back up the rankings and started last season as the world no.1.

Currently ranked at number five, Williams has struggled since then with a quarter-final berth in this year’s Masters his best result in the major ranking tournaments.

And after going down to King in disappointing style Williams was left wondering whether he should have followed his good friend and perennial rival Stephen Hendry into retirement when the Scot hung up his queue at the end of last season.

“Every time I play I seem to play that badly,” said Williams, who went out in the second round this time last year.

“Perhaps I should follow Stephen Hendry and retire, it would probably be for the best. I've got to accept that I'm never going to win it again.

“I got off alright but after that I was just terrible. I played absolutely shocking again.

“Coming in I felt like my form was alright but I couldn’t pot three balls on the trot to be quite honest.

“The table was absolutely beautiful and there was a big crowd in there, all the ingredients you want for a match out there but then I go and play like that again.

“It’s not anything that I have not done before but it’s just starting to get boring now, coming here and playing this badly.

“I said last year I was 20 points worse than what I was ten years ago but I think I’ve gone back even further again now.”

Having fallen into a 5-1 hole Williams the Welsh potting machine showed the York crowd what he was made of to claim two frames on the spin, including a century in frame eight, but it was too little too late.

And Williams was quick to praise his opponent before adding that King will need to raise his level again in round two.

“I still tried, even when I was 5-1 down I tried and made a century break when I could have just given up but to be honest it was just shocking,” he added.

“I gave Mark so much help but he’s certainly got a better chance than me in the next round.

“He knows that he will have to play better than that in the next round because whoever he plays will not be as bad as I was.”

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